Northern California Fly Fishing Report April 27, 2018
Ok, so Spring has officially sprung (for real this time) and there is quite a bit of fishing to be had. Here is the skinny on whats going on here in Northern California.

There is nothing like summer in America. Warm weather, baseball, barbecues, ice cold lemon aid and top water Largemouth fishing!

There is something about chucking a popper tight against a gnarled snag, among lily pads or near a weed line. You remember it. The smell of summer grass and pond muck mingle in your nostrils. You cautiously approach a likely looking spot that should hold a worthy adversary.

You uncork your popper from the hook-keep and begin measuring your back cast options. A cast unfurls not with the grace and poetry of a trout cast, but more of a measured chuck followed by an abrupt stop and an audible plop. The rod tip drops to the water so as to have a straight line to your fur feather or cork water puppet. With a stecatto rhythm you impart life as it were to this hapless floating train wreck suspended before you. The blurp and slurp emitting from your seemingly wounded offering leaves a trail of bubbles over dark oily water. Suddenly from the murky caffeinated depths the predatory instinct awakens.

With ferocious malice the water surrounding the prey erupts in all directions seemingly at once. This startles you and contacts directly into your peripheral nervous system with the effectiveness of a cattle prod. In an instant your hapless fly disappears along with at least a gallon of water...give or take a little.

You react with a clutch of line and your own retaliatory strike. The rod bends a smile across the face but only after several tense aerial moments followed by valiant attempts to wreck havoc on monfilament.

With a lunge and a well aimed thumb on sandpaper lips you hoist the first one, the first of summer!

MC

This video is from Catch Magazine. Brian O'Keefe and his crew put together one of our favorite fly fishing publications. Here is a link to it https://www.catchmagazine.net/Magazine/cmjun2012 This video came out a while back, but we just cant get enough! Enjoy!

Fly fishing with Off the Hook and guide Hogan Brown: fly fishing photo from the Lower Sacramento River
With June 3 weeks away summer is nearly officially and un-officially here. Many rivers are coming into shape as run off subsides but with reservoirs feet from being filled I imagine there maybe a second wave of run off when we get some consistent HOT weather and the night time temps stay hot as well. Here is what is happening and what is coming up.

Lower Yuba has dropped into shape and is stable at 2337 cfs with good clarity. Fishing has been good. Hatches should pick up over the next few weeks as the river settles into the new flow. We are entering prime time on the Lower Yuba for spring/early summer hatches. The weeks following run off see PMD, caddis, stoneflies, and all sorts of mixed hatches kicking into gear. Fish will be on the grab coming off high and off color flows and fishing will only get better as we move through June and July.

Nice Lower Sac Bow

Lower Sacramento River is still fishing consistent for trout up through redding but I have began to turn my attention to the lower river looking for shad, stripers, bass, and carp. Shad fishing is picking up as people are starting to catch a few here and a few there down around Princeton up through chico. Flows have been hovering around 10,000cfs coming out of Keswick but drop down to around 7000cfs around Ord Bend as we are in the middle of Rice Irrigation season. Once that is over here shortly the river down by Chico/Ord Bend should jump up moving fish up the river. This will also help move the migratory stripers up river and give the resident fish a bit more water making them a bit more comfortable. Smallies and Big mouth bass are waking up in the sloughs and I have seen a few fish up on beds and cruising the shallows. It is going to be getting really good really soon out there.